Memphis, a city built on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, occupied for millennia — most recently by the Chickasaw — had deeply institutionalized the racist public policies known as “Jim Crow” by the middle of the 1900s. With an openly white supremacist political establishment and police force full of KKK members, civil rights were vilified and suppressed in Memphis.

The city’s sanitation department was almost entirely Black. Worker conditions were wretched. Men died on the job. Workers began a strike in early 1968.

On this day in ‘68, with Martin Luther King, Jr. in town to lead a march, demonstrations grow violent. Police shoot and kill 16-yr-old Larry Payne, and rioting ensues. King is assassinated while standing on his hotel balcony on April 4. A week of uprisings follows, across the U.S.

The strike ends on April 16, with a settlement that includes union recognition and wage increases.